Opened to mostly negative reviews and accumulated a disappointing box-office take. But, as anyone knows, it's achieved a phenomenal following that's still going strong today.

John Carpenter's The Thing is spectacularly entertaining and very frightening despite several lapses in the screenplay and a tendency to make grossly explicit what would at times have benefited from some restraint. It's vastly superior to the Howard Hawks-produced 1951 original The Thing From Another World that, despite some frights, lacked atmosphere and compelling characters; and from first shot to last Carpenter keeps things eerily enveloping -- he puts us in a crude take-no-prisoners chokehold throughout, and while some may feel the movie is more gripping than entertaining, it'd be hard to deny Carpenter doesn't do his job (and a job on us) masterfully. The screenplay by Bill Lancaster is more faithful to the science-fiction short story Who Goes There? than the original: at a United States scientific-research facility in Antarctica, a group of twelve male crew members find their facility invaded by a long-buried, ten-thousand-year-old alien monster that, aside from being quintessentially inimical, is able to kill and perfectly duplicate its victim right down to the skin pore and voice; soon, paranoia is at the nth degree, for the men can not only not tell who's a "thing" and who's human, but, as the movie presents it, an infected human who is now a "thing" can't tell if he's human anymore -- the monster has invaded not only their body, but the subconscious, as well. The sense of paranoia coupled with claustrophobia given the isolation of the snowbound compound adds to the suspense, and with the fine array of lived-in characterizations we have something of an emotional stake in who and who doesn't get picked off; which helps because the writing has its share of logical and behavioral inconsistencies (a small spacecraft built under a tool shed in record time and with an implausible amount of mechanical pieces; the crew unwisely wandering off alone even when aware of the full-blown horror of their extraterrestrial adversary), and Carpenter's dwelling on every conceivable facet of the Thing's repulsive manifestations is at times more showoffy than integral (though Rob Bottin's elaborate special effects are admittedly brilliant). Still, this smashing movie is visually intelligent, superbly acted, acutely edited, unnervingly scored, adroitly paced, and has a place alongside Alien and the 1978 Invasion of the Body Snatchers remake as an indelible model of sci-fi/horror.

The DVD boasts a great visual transfer and a bountiful array of special features.